When profit is imperative, why does brand matter?

Lindsay Says

When profits are under pressure, brand work may feel postpone-able to some.

But the counterintuitive truth is that brand is not a nice-to-have. In fact, brand is the most direct path to your business’s defensible margin.

Brand = Differentiation = Margin

Brand is what makes you different. Everything else is ultimately copyable. Products get mimicked, competitive advantages diminish, patents expire, features obsolesce. (Also, people don't buy features—they buy the feeling that comes from the entire experience. That emotional value is where customers willingly pay premiums.)

Differentiation is the opposite of commodity, which is an instance where people buy based on price alone. When customers can't tell you apart from their alternative options, they decide based on price. When they do this, your margins disappear.

In this way, strong brand equals strong margins.

The difference is speed.

Here's what many leaders miss. If your business is growing profitably, you're already doing brand work—whether you realize it or not.

Every decision that distinguishes you from competitors is brand! Every product innovation is brand! Every activity that delights customers is brand!

The difference is in how directly you are shaping brand. Not being explicit about brand slows you and dilutes you. When you articulate brand overtly, you strengthen your margins faster and more efficiently than if you approach it implicitly.

Glossier approaches brand work directly. They have a brand strategy that is their North Star. This direct approach speeds Glossier’s growth while keeping it laser-focused on their ownable brand promise. They make on-brand decisions explicitly, thereby further delighting customers and doing so without having to relitigate each decision from scratch.

Each on-brand decision has a compound effect on every on-brand decision before it. Brand love breeds more brand love, and brand love equals margin potential and/or increased investment in brand love.

Just Math

The math is simple. If you want margin, you need brand. Do it deliberately to get there faster.